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Tuesday, 30 September 2014

The Vaselines - High Tide Low Tide
That's how you start a show. From the new album V For Vaselines which came out yesterday. Wonderful stuff.

Bear In Heaven - Autumn
Well it is autumn now. The album Time Is Over One Day Old came out in August. I'm just catching up with that.

Coves - Wake Up
Played these before, but some time ago. The album Soft Friday came out in March, but it's worth going back to dig this out. Wonderful track.

Cover Version CornerThe Fall/Sonic Youth - My New House
The Fall now become my most played band in the two-and-a-bit years we've been doing this show. That's off the 1985 album This Nation's Saving Grace. After that, Sonic Youth. Never put the word 'youth' in a band name. It looks silly further down the line. Anyway, that's off the EP 4 Tunna Brix which came out in 1990.

Thee Faction - Better Than Wages
From last year, but no better time to play it than during the Conservative party conference as they seek out new ways to enfeeble the feeble. Good Politics is the album and they're from Reigate in Surrey.

Broncho - Class Historian
Bronco or Bron-cho? Dunno. I think this could split a room between those that like it and those that find the da-da-das a bit annoying. Anyway, I'm in the former camp. They're from Oklahoma and the album Just Enough Hip To Be A Woman came out two weeks ago.

Keen On Girls - Sea Wave
This is a collaboration of two Californian bands - The Bilinda Butchers and Pastel Ghost. The result is delightful and available on an Eardrums Pop compilation called Between Two Waves - The Second Wave.

Sleep Thieves - You Want The Night
To Dublin now. Off an album of the same name which came out in June.

Joanna Gruesome - Coffee Implosion
The latest single from the show favourites from Cardiff. This is the new release from the acclaimed Weird Sister album.

Vomitface - Sloppy Joes
Terrible, terrible name for a band offset by the fact that this is one of the best things I've heard all year. Off a self-titled EP available from their bandcamp page.

One Degree of SeparationLemonade - Durutti ShoresDurutti Column - Otis
Both owing something to Spanish anarchist Buenventura Durruti who fought against the Francoists as Spain headed to civil war. That Lemonade track is off the album Minus Tide which came out earlier this month and the Durutti Column one from 1989 release Vini Reilly.

Medicine - Move Along Down The Road
When I was putting the show together I thought I liked this. Now I don't think I do. Ah well, that's how it goes sometimes. It's on the album Home Everywhere which is out next month.

The Soundcarriers - Let It Ride
Another poor effort for a name. Would-be bands; do check out @fantasy_bands on Twitter for some suggestions. But their LP Entropicalia which came out in May is bloody brilliant. There will be more from that coming up in future weeks.

Paul Read And The Invisible Band - Circles
A local bunch now. There's an EP due out soon and with a bit of luck some gigs in the vicinity. Hope so anyway. Good stuff, that.

Tuesday, 23 September 2014

Back again. Bit of a struggle to get it down to a manageable show, such is the amount of great stuff about at the moment. Anyway, here you go:

The Primitives - Spin-o-rama
You'll remember these from their 1988 hit Crash which is still great. Well they reformed in 2009 and their second album since then is due out next month. It's also called Spin-o-rama. It's like they were never away.

Crybabycry - Go Go
This is Jonny Firth from house favourites Knuckle, only this time alongside Rosie Doonan and Nici Todd to produce something quite remarkable. A real beauty, this.

Super Besse - Приказано ЗабыватьOne of the best things I've heard in ages. This is the first Belarussian band we've had on the show - they're from Minsk - but beyond the fact that Super Besse is a ski station in France and the climb up to it has been used in the Tour de France I don't know a lot about them due to my inability to speak Russian. The title translates as 'ordered to forget'. Thanks to Google Translate for that. Band of the week.Cover Version CornerGershon Kingsley/Caustic Window - PopcornProbably better known is the version by Hot Butter, but Gershon Kingsley - Goetz Ksinski from Bochum - composed it. That's off 1969's Music To Moog By. Caustic Window is one of the names Richard D James - Aphex Twin - has recorded as. His version is off the 1992 EP Joyrex J4.Fat White Family - Auto NeutronAnother track from the acclaimed Champagne Holocaust album which came out last year. Something a bit slower than we've become used to, but showing off their abilities.Hookworms - On LeavingAnother track from the forthcoming album The Hum which comes out in November. It's not so much a change of direction, as other tracks show things we're familiar with. But this shows that there's more to them.Thunder Sanchez - I Start FiresFrom Bandung, West Java, Indonesia. I found these through the power of Twitter after playing a band called Napolleon a while ago. I don't know an awful lot more than that other than if you're after a wrestling name, you can do much worse than Thunder Sanchez.The Proper Ornaments - Step Into The ColdI saw these supporting Toy in Newcastle a while back and they stood up against that standard. Bit of Velvet Undergroundy feel to this, which is rarely a bad thing. It's off the album Woodenhead.The Hidden Cameras - DoomFrom Toronto, this is off an album called Age which came out in January.Wild Billy Chyldish and CTMF - Punk Rock Enough For MeIf it's punk rock enough for Billy Chyldish, it's punk rock enough for anyone. This is out on a 7" now and will feature on the forthcoming album Acorn Man due later in the year.One Degree of SeparationThe Damned - Love SongThe Cure - Love SongTwo tracks separated by ten years and a common name. First from 1979 and the album Machine Gun Etiquette, then from 1989's Disintegration one of the all-time great songs.The Allah-Las - Follow You DownOff the album Worship The Sun which came out last week. A cracker.Chorusgirl - Oh, To Be A DefectorI don't know much about this other than they're from London, it came out in May and I love it.Underworld - BirdstarIt's 20 years since dubnobasswithmyheadman came out, which is frightening in itself. There's an anniversary edition coming out with this as part of it - a track that didn't quite make it. It speaks volumes about the album that this didn't get onto the final cut.Here's that on YouTube:

Wednesday, 10 September 2014

No live session this week, so back to the tried and trusted format of great records.

The Fall - Fibre Book Troll
Always exciting to hear new stuff from The Fall. This is just great. About abuse on social media, if you didn't quite get it. This is available on a compilation from Modeselektor. Volume 3.

Mazes - Salford
From a band from Salford to a track called Salford. They're from London though. From the album Wooden Aquarium which came out yesterday. Bit of a Kings Of Leon feel to it, but with more about it to lift above that level.

Tomorrows Tulips - Glued To You
Dreamy. This is off When which comes out on October 7. It threatens to take off at several points during the record, but always remains reserved. I like that.

Cover Version CornerTeenage Fanclub/Nai Harvest - Ain't That Enough
You can't go too far wrong covering a Teenage Fanclub track. Did they ever make a bad tune? The original is off 1997's Songs From Northern Britain - which it remains at the moment. Nai Harvest are from Sheffield and that came out in March on Art Is Hard.

Zero 7 - Simple Science
About as poppy as I get, but this is the 12" version which I much prefer. All seven-and-three-quarter minutes of it. Gives it more time to develop than the cut-down radio edit.

Total Control - Flesh War
I sat through this trying to work out what it reminded me of. I think it's Sisters Of Mercy. A bit. That's not necessarily a bad thing, by the way. They're from Melbourne and that's off the album Typical System which came out in June.

Peaking Lights - Breakdown
A husband and wife duo from San Francisco, this slice of joy is on Cosmic Logic which is out on October 7.

Riot !n Magenta - Breaking Down
Our first foray to Singapore, which calls to mind an old joke to which the punchline is "well he was no Dean Martin". Anyway, that's the first of three tracks from last year which somehow slipped through the net. This is on an EP called Cloud.

Gap Dream - Shine Your Love
From Cleveland, Ohio this drew me in with those chords at the top that reminded me of Wendy Carlos and her Switched-On Bach. This is on an album called Shine Your Light, again from last year.

Bill Callahan - Ride My Arrow
Joyous. This is off last year's Dream River album of which there is a totally dub version that came out earlier this year. I genuinely don't know which I prefer.

One Degree of SeparationBreakwater - Release The BeastDaft Punk - Robot Rock
Not too tricky this week - it's sampling, the latter of which does a lot of with the first. That Breakwater track is from 1980 and the album Splashdown. The Daft Punk one is from 2001's smaash hit Discovery.

Ought - Habit
From Montreal and the album More Than Any Other Day. Another one that reminds me of something I can't bring to mind. Maybe it doesn't. Bloody good though.

warrenpeace ft Natasha Fox - Indoor Voice
Another one from the quite brilliant album SDR007 and probably the last one I can play on a family station. Great vocals.

Aphex Twin - minipops 67 [120:2] (source field mix)
Here's exciting. The first album from Richard D James in 13 years. Syro is the title and this is the first track released from it. Immediately recognisable as an Aphex Twin track and no less bad for that.

Wednesday, 3 September 2014

We were bumped for football again last week. Stupid midweek games... Anyway, we're back and in a first for the show, we have LIVE MUSIC in the studio.

John MOuse - I Was A Goalkeeper
From the album The Death Of John MOuse which came out in July and was criminally overlooked by myself. I'm making good on it now though. There's a quite remarkable version of the national anthem, On Ilkley Moor Baht 'At, on there as well which is worth seeking out.

Modern Faces - Lufthansa
An unsigned band from Dunfermline, this is part of a double-A side release with Matter Of Time on the flip side to this. I travelled a lot with Lufthansa when I worked in Germany. I always wondered where they found pickles so small to fit in their teeny-tiny pastrami sandwiches. No answers to that conundrum are to be found here, but it's a bloody good tune anyway. It was released last week.

Ravioli Me Away - Cat Call
Quirky, to say the least. From the album The Inevitable Album, which is among the best titles of this and any other year, which came out two weeks ago. It really gets in your head.

Live session, part 1Ross Taylor - Song To Woody (live)
Delighted to welcome Ross to the studio to play us a few tracks, starting with this cover of a Dylan number. We spoke about influences, other projects and the songwriting process as well. I recorded the show and will attempt to get clips of the live sections up on here at some point. Needless to say, I was hoping rather than trusting that this was all going to work, but it did so beautifully. Apologies to Ross for using him as a guinea pig, but someone had to be first. I will definitely be doing it again.

Here he is tuning up, mic and level-checking.

The Pooh Sticks - On Tape
From 1988 and the album Orgasm. Bit of an earworm this, but no less bad for it.

Pulled Apart By Horses - Lizard Baby
Bit of a Leeds-a-thon for the next three tracks starting with this. The new album Blood came out yesterday.

Hookworms - The Impasse
Their debut album Pearl Mystic was quite remarkable, so the expectations for their second are huge. It's coming out in November, it's called the Hum and this is the first release from that. Fantastic.

Flies On Me - Can You Smell That Burning Noise?
Self-styled musical revolutionaries, this is available as a free download from their bandcamp page. And well worth getting hold of, just as I did.

The Landseers - The Royal We
It's things like this that make Twitter work for me. Without chatting to, ostensibly, strangers about the Tour de France, I'd not have found it.

Teen Brains - Fluke
Another one from the compilation put out by Beech Coma records - volume 2, specifically.

Live session, part 2Ross Taylor - A Story For Louise (live)Ross Taylor - The Garden (live)
Two Taylor originals for the second part of our live session. Both can be found on the forthcoming EP also called The Garden. For more of Ross, check out his Facebook page and he's on Soundcloud too. Do check him out. We'll definitely be having him back in and huge, huge thanks again to him for coming in.

warrenpeace - Hungry
And now for something completely different... The album release passed me by, which is odd as I've played a track from it ages ago. The whole, SDR007, is a work of twisted genius fusing manic guitar and some heavy beats. Well worth checking out.

Whilst - Umgebung
From the EP Everything There Was Was There, which is easy for me to say.

Shift Work - Scaled To Fit
And to end, this from an EP of the same name. The best thing I've heard this year, maybe in five years, maybe even in ten. Utterly brilliant. I've basically had it on a loop for a fortnight. Absolutely love it.

Here's most of that on YouTube:

and some of it on Soundcloud:

and I'll try to get the live bits up somewhere at some point.
Back next week.